A nuclear physicist who gave secret national defense information to Chinese scientists and lied about it to U.S. investigators was sentenced Thursday to one year in a halfway house.
Peter Lee, 58, also must pay a $20,000 fine and perform 3,000 hours of community service.
U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter told Lee that a "message needs to be sent to other scientists who take an oath, like you did, not to reveal our nation's secrets."
The Taiwan-born resident of Manhattan Beach pleaded guilty Dec. 8 to giving China secret information in 1985 about the use of lasers to simulate nuclear detonations. He told the FBI he wanted to help the Chinese scientists and enhance his reputation there.
Lee worked as a laser energy researcher at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He divulged the information on a visit to the government-run Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Seven Chinese scientists of the academy called it a normal academic exchange and accused U.S. authorities of coercing Lee to plead guilty.